BALING SYSTEM FOR MAKING LABORATORY-SCALE HAY BALES

Research on the preservation of moist hay has long been an area of intense interest; however, such research has often been hampered by the difficulty in controlling experimental conditions during field hay trials. The development of a laboratory-scale baling system that would allow researchers to impose a baling treatment on a small quantity of forage would reduce the need for expensive field trials and, to a large degree, minimize weather as a factor in hay experiments. A simple system that utilizes a hinged metal baling unit and a hydraulic press to make 10.3- by 10.8- by 13.4-cm wire-tied hay bales over a wide range of densities (150 to 800 kg m-3) is described. The system was inexpensive to build, easy to use, and could easily be reproduced.